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Atlanta Braves First Baseman Hits Awesome Milestone, Joins Great History of Last 50 Years

Matt Olson has been the definition of durable in his career.

Brady Farkas

Atlanta Braves first base Matt Olson (28) hits a double against the Colorado Rockies during the first inning at Truist Park on Sept 4.
Atlanta Braves first base Matt Olson (28) hits a double against the Colorado Rockies during the first inning at Truist Park on Sept 4. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
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The Atlanta Braves suffered a tough loss on Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays, falling 9-5. WIth that loss, they are now 1.0 game behind the New York Mets for the third and final wild card spot in the National League.

Despite the loss, the game still featured an incredible accomplishment from one Braves player: Matt Olson.

From Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

Matt Olson is playing his 600th consecutive game, dating to 5/2/21

only other streaks of 600+ to begin in divisional era (1969):

1982-98 Cal Ripken Jr: 2,632
1975-83 Steve Garvey: 1,207
2000-07 Miguel Tejada: 1,152
1978-83 Pete Rose: 745
1981-86 Dale Murphy: 740
1973-78 Rose: 678
1969-73 Sandy Alomar Sr: 661

h/t @EliasSports

Olson has been the definition of durable over the last few years. Since arriving in Atlanta in 2022, he's played in every single Braves game. As Langs notes, this streak started with Oakland in 2021, when he played in 156 games that year. This streak is even more impressive considering that teams just don't let guys play every day anymore, yet Olson has bucked the trend.

This season, Olson has 25 homers and 72 RBI, but that is a far cry from his MLB-leading 54 and 139 from a season ago. Olson is hitting just .232 this year, but doesn't have the same lineup protection, either. Ronald Acuna Jr. has been out most of the season with a torn ACL and Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley have also each missed signfiicant time.

The Braves will take on the Blue Jays again on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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